June 25, 2023

Kate Sadler

Dr. Kate M. Sadler is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D), Licensed Behavior Analyst, and certified Early Childhood and Special Education Teacher. Dr. Sadler serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor of Special Education and Director of the Graduate Program in Applied Behavior Analysis in the College of Education & Human Development at the University of Missouri. Before joining the MU faculty, she completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and earned her PhD in Special Education with an emphasis in autism spectrum disorders and cognitive psychology at the University of Missouri;…

Oct. 8, 2020

Sara Estrapala

Dr. Sara Estrapala is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Her research focuses on Tier 1 and Tier 2 Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in high schools, and she is particularly interested in studying student voice, self-regulation development, and usability and feasibility of intervention implementation in the high school context. Dr. Estrapala was recently awarded an IES Early Career Development and Training Grant where she will iteratively develop a self-directed self-regulation intervention for high school students with disabilities…

Aug. 9, 2018

Lisa Goran

Lisa Goran earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Missouri. Her professional work focuses on teacher preparation and her research lines focus on teacher preparation and the language-literacy connections for students with disabilities.

Aug. 18, 2015

Jena Morgan

Dr. Jena Morgan is an Associate Professor at the University of Missouri in the Special Education Department and the Director of Online Graduate programs. Prior to this she served as the Director of Training and Education at the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment.  She has over 25 years of experience working with individuals with autism throughout the lifespan across home, clinical and school settings. Her experience has a focus on neurodiversity, collaborative and coordinated care, emergent communication development, and supporting the implementation of evidence-based practices in schools.

July 16, 2015

Delinda van Garderen

Delinda van Garderen, PhD, is a Professor of special education. Her research interests focus on students with learning disabilities, struggling learners, visual representations in mathematics word problem solving, STEM literacy, argumentation, quantitative reasoning, and teacher practice and development. Recent or current research projects include teacher professional development to integrate STEM literacy in instruction, how students and teachers use representations to solve mathematics word problems, student development and intervention in number (e.g., conservation of quantity, numerical magnitude), and use of scaffolding to plan instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners in science. She has mentored doctoral graduate students in educational…

July 15, 2015

Melissa Stormont

Dr. Melissa Stormont is a Professor in Special Education at MU. Dr. Stormont has published extensive research (over 80 peer-reviewed articles and 5 books and 10 book chapters) on the educational and social needs of children at risk for failure in school.  Dr. Stormont teaches undergraduate and graduate students in special education.  She has had extensive grant experience including serving as a Co-PI on personnel preparation and research grants and is currently a co-PI with Drs. Reinke and Herman on an efficacy trial of the STARS intervention funded by IES (Thompson, PI).  Currently she is an associate editor for the…

July 8, 2015

Tim Lewis

Dr. Tim Lewis has been involved in special education for 40 years.  Dr. Lewis has taught students with emotional and behavioral disorders in high school, elementary, and self-contained psychiatric settings.  At present, Dr. Lewis is a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Special Education at the University of Missouri. Dr. Lewis is past Co-Editor of the journal Behavioral Disorders, Associate Editor of the Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions, and a member of 13 editorial boards. During his 34-year career in higher education Dr. Lewis has served multiple terms as department chair and associate dean for research. Dr. Lewis has been involved with developing school-wide systems…

July 7, 2015

Erica Lembke

Erica Lembke is a Professor in the Department of Special Education, a Senior Advisor for the National Center on Intensive Intervention, past-president of the national board of the Division for Learning Disabilities, and past editor of the journal Assessment for Effective Intervention. Recently she served as department chair for 5 years and interim dean for 1.5 years in the college. Her research interests include helping support teachers in data-based decision making through designing and implementing Curriculum-Based Measures in elementary and secondary grades and developing strategies to improve elementary students’ literacy and mathematics performance. She is Principal Investigator on…